Tag Archives: Man City

Frimwrong?

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Before we start, I would like to point out that I love watching Frimpong play.

You can see he has the potential to be a fantastic defensive midfielder, but what is really exciting about him is his rawness. He always looks slightly on the edge, just on the verge of losing control of the ball, and himself. A battler, something that will benefit Arsenal no-end, and in a couple of years will be aiming to cement a first place in that team.

But is he the type of player that we need? I mean, REALLY need?

Sure, it’s great that we’re adding more defensive elements to our team, and Frimpong will be the type of player that will suit Wolves down to a tee. A physical battler who ‘puts in a shift’ is something that will warm up Mick’s McCarthys no end.

But how will this bolster what will essentially keep us up, scoring goals?

We have Fletcher at the moment, and we have Jarvis who is able to create chances. And that is pretty much it. It doesn’t bare thinking about if they both hit a bad run of form, or worse, were injured.

Our issue going forward is stemmed around the playing styles of Henry and O’Hara. I’m not doubting the quality of either, but both like to pick the ball up from deep.

There isn’t an issue with this, some of the world’s best central midfielders do it. But we’ve seen countless times before or times where Henry or O’Hara have collected the ball, turned and there not being anybody 20 yards in front of them. As a result they have to resort to either playing it back, or playing the longer ball, whether this is to our striker or over the head of their right back for Jarvis to run onto (which never bloody works)

This used to be effective sometimes when Doyle was on top of his game, but with him struggling, it’s meant that our main goal threat, Fletcher, having to come deep to try to knock on balls when he should be the one chasing them.

And if it’s not Fletcher coming deep, its Jarvis or the other wide player coming out of position to look for the shorter ball in the middle of the park, bringing them out of the area where they are most effective.

We need someone to play in that hole. Somebody who can link the play up, bring Fletcher and Jarvis into the game easier as well as being a goal threat themselves. We saw O’Hara do it briefly, but his natural style meant that he ended up dropping deeper and deeper anyway.

So who would be that ideal player?

Long-term, I’m not sure. David Edwards did it effectively against Man City last year, especially his runs into their area. But he doesn’t have the the creative quality or pace to carry this on.

Is there then an argument to go for another loan signing to look at this in the short-term? If we are looking at players like Frimpong who are largely unproven in the Premier League, players who are young but not yet given an opportunity in the first team, then what’s stopping us looking at somebody else?

For me, all this points towards somebody like Josh McEachran.

A creative midfielder who also has the ability to play out wide, he has huge amounts of potential. But when he’s competing against the likes of Mata, Sturridge, Lampard, Meireles, will he be given the opportunity of first-team football in the near future?

He is somebody that Chelsea do see as part of their future, he signed a 5 year deal this summer, and there has been talk of him going on loan to other teams.

And his style of play would easily suit us in both a 4-5-1 and a 4-4-2 formation. Granted, it would mean dropping Henry or O’Hara, but Mick has already dropped Johnson, Doyle and Jarvis this season, so this isn’t something he’s afraid to do.

As I said earlier, I am excited to see Frimpong in a Wolves shirt. But if we are to push on and reach our target of being comfortably safe before the end of the season, we need to start looking at pushing forward in a more positive manner.

Sam Vokes: Boy starting to come good?…

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Sam Jokes. Sam Chokes. The puns are endless.

Bless him though. I mean, he’s always been like the ugly kitten in the pet shop.

His owner doesn’t really want him, so gives him away to other people. But after a while, they don’t really like looking at him either and end up leaving him on the steps of the owner’s house, filling the night with the sound of running foosteps and sighing.

It’s a horrible way to live I’m sure, being the Oliver Twist of the feline world. But when you do the human equivalent of shit on the kitchen floor every day (missing a sitter from 6 yards out in the last minute against Manchester United), people are going to hold it against you.

And who can blame them? To see this shit-ridden kitten continously popping up now and then, back in the pen, not contributing anything at all apart from wiping their arse all over the brand new carpet in the living room is bloody annoying at best.

But what’s this? We’ve seen a little twinkle in that kitten’s eye. He’s looking over at us and maybe behind that Piccaso looking creature might actually be something useful.

We saw it for 20 minutes in the Carling Cup game against City. He showed good movement, held the ball up well and brought others into the game effectively. And then City decided to turn up. But overall, that was probably the most effective we’ve seen him in a Wolves shirt.

Then on Saturday, what some people would call a miracle, occured.

Not only did we (Wales) score 4 goals in a game, but Vokes scored…twice…in the space of 60 seconds.

His second goal was…well…where the hell did that come? A low drive from 20 yards out into the near post, was a finish wrapped in sheer quality.

But his first goal was the one that showed the most promise. Granted, it was an excellent counter-attack conducted by Gareth Bale and Craig Bellamy, but Vokes showed a couple of characteristics which really stood out.

Sheer determination being one of them, to keep up with the pace of Bale and Bellamy when you’re massive oaf can’t be easy.

Secondly, and most importantly, was his run into the area. Simple, but extremely effective.

With Bale running at the centre backs, Vokes makes his move to the right hand-side. This gives the CBs two options, stick with the imminent danger that is the pace of Bale moving to the left wing, or for one of them to track Vokes, leaving Bale to be 1-on-1 with the defence. Naturally they hold their line, leaving Vokes plenty of space on the right-hand side. Once the ball is played through to Bale, the CBs are out of the game and Vokes caputilises on this with a fairly simple tap-in.

It may not seem like much, but to get into that position is something a good centre-forward would do. Players like Linkear and Van Nistelrooy made careers out of it (before you say anything, I am not comparing Vokes to them)

So what does this all mean?

I am not rushing ahead of myself and saying Vokes is there, that he should start for us, that he could spearhead our charge up the table.

Far from it. What it has shown is his potential aside from being the big man we stick on late in a game as a last resort. He has demonstrated that given more game experience and a boost in confidence, he could be a much more effective forward. One that differs from Fletcher and Doyle in the fact that he doesn’t come deep to collect the ball. He can hassle the opposite centre backs, making clever, simple runs whilst having the strength to bring others into the game.

Wolves Blog recently wrote that our missing link was a forward who played further up the pitch. Our answer could be somewhere we least suspected…

Probably not though.

Wolves vs Man City Carling Cup Preview (From the depths of our bench, come our saviours)

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Let’s not mention what’s happened over the past few days. Nothing new will come of it.

Why not take a minute to look at this from a positive point-of-view.

I’ve dwelled on this post for a few days. I had something planned. Something really positive before our Carling Cup tie. Something that will get us motivated, spur us on and really get us all pumped and motivated for our two games against City. Something that will bring fire to our hearts.

And then those lovely bastards at Wolves Blog bloody beat me to it.

…Bastards.

So, here’s something I’ve had to rattle together quickly on my lunchbreak:

Maybe we should see tonight’s game as a real opportunity. Probably not one to rip City apart, or even beat them (let’s be realistic here) but an opportunity to bring a new spark to the players in our squad.

How you ask? Give Eileen Drewery a call? God no (no pun intended)

Give our players who don’t regularly start a game.

‘What?! What the hell are you talking about? We haven’t won in 7 games, and you want us to play our subs against City? A city who just beat Man Utd 6-1 at Old Trafford? Have you been smoking crack on your lunchbreak?’

Only a little. But there is method behind my madness.

We have seen a number of our player’s confidence really drop recently, through various reasons (which I won’t go into, simply because if you live in a place where football exists, you would have heard about…unless you don’t live in one of these places…somewhere like Qatar) which has had a knock-on effect on their form. It’s understandable, but they need encouragment to step up and improve their game when they, and we, need it most.

So where is this encouragment going to come from? The fans?…

How about a bit of healthy competition for places?

‘Hang on…so you’re saying that the best way to improve a player, a player whose confidence is rock bottom, is to threaten them to be dropped?…Is that crack kicking in about now or something?’

I am coming up a little bit yes, but again, bare with me.

So we bring in a second eleven against City tonight, players who are told to compete. Players who are told that if they perform tonight, they could be knocking on the first team’s door. What will you expect to see from them? Most likely 100% effort and commitment, but most importantly, passion. Passion which could be lacking at the moment.

Nobody is expecting us to beat City, but to take the game to them, with true heart, could win those disenchanted fans over.

Any impressive performances from that should then be given a starting place at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. And what are going to see again? True determination, and probably weeping from the mere sigh of David Silva on the ball.

Anybody replaced, if they have the right mentality (which surely shouldn’t be a problem with the spirit we have previously shown, as the player’s relationship with Mick) will see this as their time to up their game to win their place back.

I’m not at all saying this will turn our form around, we have a difficult run of games coming up after all. But something needs to change, and that change could well come from the people we least expected.

Still worked up about that Wolves Blog post. Bloody mind readers…

The battle has commenced…

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Yes, my last post was about ‘(almost) being ashamed of being a Wolves fan’.

And yes, through-out the game I repeatedly condemned the ‘boo boys’. I was ashamed, embarrassed, sympathetic towards Swansea and down right angry.

But I think more than anything, this was a heat of the moment thing. I was wound up by the lacklustre performance, as well as the fan’s reaction to it. It seemed at times that some fans were aiming to go along just to be given the opportunity to voice their opinions to our players and manager.

So the reactions of both Mick and Roger Johnson are fairly understandable. They want the best for the club as much as we do. These comments however seem slightly unprofessional, which will undoubtedly be picked up by the ‘boo boys’, without sensing the irony of doing so.

Everybody is venting their frustrations, but whether they are doing this in the most effective manner is questionable:

  • The ’boo boys’ – Don’t think I need to point this out, do I?
  • The anti ‘boo boys’ – People like me, caught up in the moment, who are quite happy to tell the Twitter world and any friends who will take a minute to listen about the fans aren’t helping the situation.
  • Mick and players – Post-match interviews are not the optune time to show your emotions. It’s when you’re most worked up and likely to say something you may regret, be taken out of context or is just plain unpopular.

All of the above has happened, and as a result everybody at Wolves is at war with one another.

The ‘boo boys’ will be more worked up after Mick’s ‘let us all just have a scrap and sort it aaaaaut’ comments.

I will look at these fans and think what they are doing is counter-productive, questioning whether they are actually fans which will probably lead to more anger induced tweets and comments.

Mick and the players are already describing playing at Molineux as ‘hostile’, something we haven’t really seen since the days of Glenn ‘The Draw-Meister’ Hoddle. It can’t be easy for them, imagine sitting at your desk at work, trying to complete that draft of the report that was due in two days ago whilst somebody waves your P45 right in your face.

At a time when, as a club, we need to get together and back our team, we are all at each others’ throats.

So what will stop this? Well, some whole-hearted, encouraging performances in the two games against City and at home to Wigan.

But don’t the players need us behind them to be able to do this? Don’t we need to stage another miraculous, and totally undeserving, recovery to get our supporters singing again?…

Unfortunately, it looks like we are stuck in a vicious cycle, that at the moment, we may just have to ride out.

Still, at least West Brom didn’t beat us 6-1 at Molineux.